A nonny mouse?

While I'm sometimes conflicted as to whether I support Anonymous or not, this time they are officially dead set legends if only for their choice of music.  :)

What if your dog could text you?

False idolatry

I read with amusement that two of Australia's Olympic swimming hopefuls are apparently in hotter than normal water over their posting of a Facebook picture showing them posing with some guns in America.

OK, a few points here.  Let's get the simple ones out of the way first for people with simple minds who can't quite cope with anything more complex.

For starters, guns are NOT evil.  They are an inanimate object.  Deal with this.

Secondly, the guns in question are no doubt perfectly legal where the picture was taken.  Different parts of the world have different laws.  Deal with this too.  Would the bunny hugger brigade be similarly outraged if the people in question had their photo taken in Utah in front of a polygamist family?  Or eating a meat product that can't be legally imported into Australia?  Take your moral high horse somewhere else.

Thirdly, and most importantly, the whole furore is utter crap.  Regardless of what people would like to think, these people are NOT role models - they're just people, who happen to able to swim very well.  That doesn't make them upstanding examples of anything other than sporting achievement.

Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh were two of Australia's most legendary cricketers of all time.  Both are bascially complete pricks, something which has been proven more than once.  Idolising them doesn't change that.  The local Melbourne community constantly battles with the conundrum of worshipping AFL players who, that aside, often behave like complete cunts - because the people involved are basically thug arseholes who just happen to be able to play a peculiar code of ball game (I won't dignify it by calling it football) well.

Do I like the two swimmers in question?  I've honestly never really heard of Kenrick Monk.  His parent(s) want slapping for the pretentious name, but that's my only feeling on the subject.

Nick D'Arcy, my inbuilt dislike for people with pretentious names aside, is apparently a bit of an arsehole, although I do hold a certain sneaking prejudice against the second place combatant for apparently not only being a cream puff, but also a sore loser too.  (I have no idea if Simon Cowley was right or wrong in the dispute in question, and to be honest it's not relevant to the argument - either way he got a kicking.  If he was right, he might want to learn to pull his head in in the face of superior force.  If he was wrong - he can hand his man card in at the door on the way out.)

Ultimately, sports people are people good at sports, regardless of what virtues we'd like to invest them with.  That's a construct of our own making, and for every Kieran Perkins, there's a Grant Hackett.  Any invention of idolatry is of our making, not theirs.

We have the choice of picking sportsmen who either excel at sport, or picking nice people.  Very occasionally, someone like Ian Healy comes along who can do both.  These people are the exception.  The rest of the time, the choice is often winning medals or giving a charming concession speech.  Pick one.  Any disappointment resulting is far more a reflection on our shallow minded expectations of idealism than anything else.

Oh YAY

Great, so it looks like Flame has managed to subvert the digital signature system used for MS updates, with the result that it now has a backdoor delivery system to the majority of PCs on the planet.

Personally, I'd get KB2718704 installed ASAP and hope that the update itself doesn't get man-in-the-middled.

Knots in the family tree

Have a read of this little gem.

As far as I can figure out, if the kids got married:

• the baby’s grandmother will also be his mother
• his stepfather will also be his father, and
• his stepmother will also be his half-sister.

I say go for it, if only just to have something to talk about at barbies.

TGIF

Shitful day at work, dealt with a variety of bullshit that is NOT my problem, but got stuck with it anyway.

Equally shitful drive home through totally unnecessary roadworks and a cluster of morons who are either cruising at 85 on the freeway weaving back and forth between two lanes, or think the place is their private cannonball run.

Two exits from home someone's precious little snowflake and leader of tomorrow thinks it's fucking hilarious to be egging cars from the pedestrian bridge over the freeway.  I suppose I should be grateful it wasn't a brick.  15 minute diversion to the carwash to get the crap off because I can't leave it until morning - the paint is ageing disgracefully but I'd prefer it as is thanks.  Briefly toyed with the idea of calling the cops but couldn't be bothered, because the cops wouldn't catch them and precisely nothing would happen if they did.  Satisfied myself with calling the radio station and telling them that anyone listening had my full and complete permission to beat seven colour of shit out of them if they happened to be in the area.  I can dream.

Get home and the handbrake is freaking because the cat isn't home, but can be heard making distressed cries from a few yards over.  It's 00:15hrs, brilliant time to be prowling around in people's yard with a torch, good way to get yourself shot, and there's going to be no way to carry the bastard home if I can find him, because when a nervy 6kg cat decides he's leaving it's like holding onto a running chainsaw by the business end.

After sneaking around in 3 yards I give up because anything further means ringing doorbells and it's now 00:35hrs, which is a bit much really.  Go back to the yard for a recce because he at least replies when he hears my voice, and I still reckon he's in one of the two yards I have already been through fairly thoroughly.

Finally discovered the furry little sod on the second storey roof of the house diagonally behind us, not distressed in the slightest, just talking back and enjoying his death-from-above view of things.  Couldn't pinpoint him from sound because of the fences and brickwork, but cat eyes will reflect damn near anything.  Once he learned I could see him, he happily got down and zipped along the fence back into his own yard, stuffed his face, and is currently asleep on the bed.

Fucking cat.

Where's the shiraz, I'm getting blasted.

News of the morning

I see Moany Tony want all preschoolers to learn a second language.  An excellent idea, might I suggest English as the language of choice?

Also in breaking news, I see Tony also doesn't like the federal budget.

Slightly more back to the real world, the poor beleagured smokers of the world are now whining that they are being excluded from applying for some jobs, presumably on the basis that the potential employers would rather not have someone taking numerous smoke breaks to kill themselves with cancer while on company time.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, smokers have a problem with that, but that's OK because nobody else gives a flying fuck about their wish to slowly rot themselves to death with poisonous chemicals.

Acting Victorian Equal Opportunity Commissioner Karen Toohey said job advertisements must not discriminate.  "Stipulating smokers need not apply for a job may be against the law."

Sorry, Kazza - you might want to recheck the definition of illegal discrimination, which is discrimination on the grounds of "age, colour, creed, disability, family status, gender, nationality, marital status, parental status, political opinion/affiliation, pregnancy or potential pregnancy, race or social origin, religious beliefs/activity, responsibilities, sex, responsibilities, or sexual orientation".

I think most people would agree it's OK to discriminate against hiring a heroin addict, for instance.  I don't see anything in the definition above that says you're required to hire someone that voluntarily carries on an addictive practice that requires them to absent themselves from work to poison themselves, affects their performance when they are jonesing for their next hit, affects their performance after it, creates objectionable smells and odours for co-workers, leaves toxic waste behind that other people need to avoid and someone else needs to clean up, and slowly rots the addict to death from the inside out.

Oh sorry, I forgot about heroin.  I was talking about tobacco addicts.  Yeah, that's OK, because it's socially acceptable and legal!  Yeah, that's totally discrimination if you don't hire a smoker.